1 Some time later, the king of the Ammon people-group died, and his son Hanun became their king. 2 David thought, “Nahash was kind to me, so I will be kind to his son.” So David sent some officials there, to tell Hanun that David was sorry that Hanun’s father had died.

When those messengers arrived in the land where the Ammon people-group lived, 3 the leaders of the Ammon people-group said to Hanun, “Do you think that it is to honor your father that King David has sent these men to say that he is sorry that your father died [RHQ]? We think that he has sent them here to look around the city to determine how his army can conquer us!” 4 Hanun believed what they said; so he commanded some soldiers to seize David’s officials and insult them by shaving off one side of each man’s beard, and by cutting off the lower part of their robes, with the result that their buttocks could be seen, and then they sent them away.

5 The men were very humiliated/ashamed, so they did not want to return home. When David found out about what had happened to his officials, he sent someone to tell them, “Stay at Jericho until your beards have grown again, and then return home.”

6 Then the leaders of the Ammon people-group realized that they had greatly insulted [IDM] David [IDM]. So they sent some men to hire/pay some soldiers from other nearby areas to help defend them. They hired 20,000 soldiers from the Beth-Rehob and Zobah regions northeast of Israel, and 12,000 soldiers from the Tob region, and 1,000 soldiers from the army of the king of Maacah region.

7 When David heard about that, he sent Joab with all of the army that Joab commanded, to fight against them. 8 The soldiers of the Ammon people-group marched out and ◄stood in their positions/arranged themselves for battle► at the entrance to their capital city, Rabbah. The other soldiers from Syria and Tob and Maacah stood by themselves ◄in their positions/arranged themselves for battle► in the nearby fields.

9 Joab saw that there were groups of enemy soldiers in front of his troops and behind his troops. So he chose some of the best Israeli soldiers, and put them in positions to fight against the soldiers of Syria. 10 He appointed his older brother Abishai to be the commander of all the other soldiers, and he told them to ◄stand in their positions/arrange themselves► in front of the army of the Ammon people-group. 11 Then Joab said, “If the soldiers from Syria are too strong for us to defeat them, your men must come and help us. But if the soldiers from the Ammon people-group are too strong for you to defeat, we will come and help your men. 12 We must be strong, and fight hard [IDM] to defend our people and the cities ◄that belong to/where we worship► our God. I will pray/request that Yahweh do what he considers to be good.”

13 So Joab and his army advanced to attack the army of Syria, and the soldiers from Syria ran away from them. 14 And when the soldiers of the Ammon people-group saw that the soldiers from Syria were running away, they also started to run away from Abishai and his army, and they retreated back inside the city. So Joab’s army stopped fighting against the army of the Ammon people-group, and Joab and his army returned to Jerusalem.

15 After the leaders of the army of Syria saw that the Israeli army had defeated them, they gathered all their troops together. 16  Their king, Hadadezer, summoned the soldiers of Syria who lived on the east side of the Euphrates River. They gathered at Helam city. Their commander was Shobach.

17 When David heard about that, he gathered all the Israeli soldiers, and they crossed the Jordan River and marched to Helam. There, the army of Syria ◄took their positions/arranged themselves for battle►, and the battle started. 18 But the soldiers of Syria ran away from the Israeli soldiers. David and his army killed 700 of their chariot-drivers and 40,000 other soldiers. They also wounded Shobach, their commander, and he died there. 19 When all the kings who had been ruled by Hadadezer realized that they had been defeated by the Israeli army, they made peace with the Israelis and agreed to accept David as their king. So the army of Syria was afraid to help the army of the Ammon people-group any more.